Especially in the hemodialysis field, central-supply reverse-osmosis systems are normally used with permeate supply lines that have to be installed in a correspondingly complicated way. Serious drawbacks of the central reverse-osmosis systems are on the one hand the high risk of non-treatment in the case of device failure and on the other hand the high installations costs and the difficult hygienic safety of the installation.
Single-station reverse-osmosis systems are mainly used for reasons of space in the intensive-care fields. For the chronic hemodialysis (HD), the supply of the dialysis devices with permeate by single-station reverse osmosis (RO) systems is not feasible at the moment for reasons of costs.
Further problems arising in the combination of RO system and HD device are posed by the missing evidence that the permeate supply device has no dead spaces for reasons of bacterial input into the HD device and can be disinfected completely.
To this end an integrated chemical or thermal disinfection of the distribution system, including the HD devices, is carried out according to the prior art.
Another serious flaw is the decreasing efficiency and service life of the reverse osmosis membrane due to irreversible deposits, the reason being that biomass and hardly soluble salts are often contained in the supply water for the RO system.